About this project

$5,675

pledged of $5,400 goal

37

backers

THE STORY

The year is 1836 and the armies of the ruthless tyrant Santa Anna, the self proclaimed Napoleon of the West, have crossed the Rio Grande and begun to stalk the Texas rebels that have defied him with revolution.

He meets a small garrison behind the adobe walls of a crumbling mission in San Antonio, a fight to the death the only recourse. An evil beyond imagination awaits.

You know the story, you may think you know it well, but re-remember....

Re-remember the Alamo, the story is not as you’ve been told.

The famed defenders of the Alamo hold off impossible numbers and hope against hope that help will arrive as they do battle with unexpected enemies of the supernatural and ethereal dark forces.

Montazuma is an immortal seeking revenge over the West for his oust from power centuries earlier, returning as Santa Anna he vows to crush the Texas resistance he meets at the Alamo.

Armed with the mythical Elixir of Life, said to have come from the very tree that saw man banished from Eden, his Napoleonic army is unwittingly enchanted. Having drunk a potion that resurrects their fallen forms after death, that raises and animates their dust and bone from the grave after their blood is spilled to fight a cursed second life. An army of undead lay siege, and they're here...at the Alamo.

The odds are impossible, the tale you knew too modest, 185 holding back 5000...twice.

Yes on the most rudimentary level I admit, zombies attack the Alamo, which is cool unto itself, but it's so much more! The plausibility given to the tale is thoughtful, the thematics human, even dare we utter the words biblical.

This is a perverse resurrection, not George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, these are cursed people, not shuffling corpses, but damnation incarnate.

It's a much more sophisticated story than that, but just to give you a broad picture of what you're getting yourself in to, there it is.

It's like an Indiana Jones movie, there's a logic and supernatural element to the "zombies" though they're never called such.

And it's fun as can be to have Colonel Travis, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie fighting off the undead.

With Santa Anna being an immortal, one who has assumed many names over time, with vanity somewhat like Dorian Gray, his painting drawn daily because he casts no reflection (he's never called a vampire, but he is kept more vital than the other cursed by drinking the water of life, blood. An atonement that never satisfies fully and has to constantly be quenched). In fact when he has not had sufficient blood his hideous true reflection is cast, and like Dorian his image wilts.

A NUANCED TALE

The story has been fun to write as it has become more intricate since I first conceived it and now it is woven with many subtle thematics that spice up traditional genre fanfare with some hint of originality.

There are vampire and zombie attributes to the enemy but they truthfully aren't either, they are a new mythology, one based on Adam's curse and the desire to be gods ourselves and the horror of those left in unredeemed status had God mercifully not thrown Adam and Eve out of Eden but instead allowed them to continue to taste the forbidden; which basically these poor unwitting cursed soldiers do. Glowing and dripping the elixir that made them.

It is implied Santa Anna was perhaps even Cain, history's first murderer and he had first revisited his father's curse upon himself in double dose by sneakily partaking of the tree again, thus making him immortal at this terrible price. He took to hoarding fruit from it that would have haunting implications later when it bore a replicate tree outside the boundary of Eden, and he continued to use it for his own wicked purposes.

It is suggested that he hung out in France during the French Revolution and was enthralled with the the self serving spirit of the age and the absolute blood shed of it. Equally smitten with Napoleon, who he mimicked as the the West's finest general. Historically there was a man named the Count St. Germain in the era that claimed he held the secret of immortality and an elixir of everlasting life, so odd and wonderful were his stories and knowledge that many began to believe he truly was living in the annals of history he could describe with first person account. I make him Santa Anna's identity in France as it fits so splendidly into the tale.

He returns to Mexico to avenge the overthrow of his Aztec empire by the West and their Christianity with the tactics of the greatest conqueror of the century, he himself now the ambitious Conquistador. Historically Santa Anna did dub himself the "Napoleon of the West" and the Mexican army was adorned in surplus Napoleonic uniforms and weaponry, which lends a fun flourish to the tale.

Making this particular exposition even more intriguing is that it isn't contrived to tell it as in reality one of the Alamo defenders was a man named Moses Rose, who had been a conscript in the true Napoleon's army. Stranger than fiction this real life man survived the invasion of Russia in winter, and survived Waterloo only to end up at the Alamo later in life. He provides a natural character to explain how he sees Napoleon in Santa Anna's methods.

I have great fun with some thematics that really ring true to those paying attention at the allegorical subtlety of them.

One of my favorite scenes I've written has a meeting between Santa Anna and Colonel Travis at the gates of the Alamo one dark night on the eve before the final siege, it is there where we learn of some hinted satanic qualities to him as well as a good gauge of his ancient existence. He taunts Travis in their exchange, mocking his broken life, seeking to rile and shake him with such strange intimate knowledge, and scoffs at Travis' defiance of him with the following words as he points up to the sky:

"Look above you, search the heavens and see a million glowing orbs of light, each have come and gone and I have outlasted them all...and I will not be defied by a lone star." (Obviously a tip o' the hat to Texas)

But he goes still further and turns his back to Travis, himself now stargazing "You are not the first adversary to announce himself under a star." ( An implication most will understand as alluding to Christ)

Another theme I wove into historical truth were the words of Travis' famous letter for help that never came, that uttered "Victory or Death" at the conclusion.

When addressing a frightened child (there were children at the Alamo) about whether or not he fears death Travis replies in somber honesty that he does, but not without great hope, because you can't have any courage or certainty to utter the words "Victory or Death" unless you believe that there has already been victory over death. It's a flourish with a theological twinge but not an esoteric one that alienates a pluralisitc audience, I get away with hinting faint theological themes because they lend credence to the mythology of the story and the people within this last stand, and frankly they keep things interesting.

The story of course ends with the Alamo being overwhelmed, but not before an Indiana Jones style thrill ride where we exposit the before things and have adventure watching the Alamo defended against an onslaught of the cursed on the battlefield and beneath the catacombs of San Antonio.

The final scene finds Travis and Crockett resigned to their end, in a quiet moment indoors away from the death outside they shake hands and accept their absolution with a noble exchange "To the death" Travis says, "To the death of death" Crockett confirms, echoing the earlier theme.

They take deep solemn breaths and walk out into the open, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid style, to face the horde and fight they know will kill them.

And so our tale fades to black, the audience entertained...and maybe even a little edified.

WHERE YOU CAN HELP

We need a ballpark minimal of $5,000.00 to get this artwork done, truthfully more, but I'd rather aim conservative and get some backing then ask for too much and fall short. The bench mark has been set at $5,400.00 to offset the projected costs of paying kickstarter and Amazon their commission for this transaction.

If this story floats your fancy please pass it on and let's make it a produced reality as a graphic novel...one that perhaps one day may even be a motion picture.

Cheers,

Travis Speegle

If you're new to kickstarter please see the FAQ for assistance in how to donate.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

Be drawn on a page as an Alamo defender! 100 dollars per page, so if you want multiple appearances please pay per appearance as this is a time consuming process for artists, but a fun memento for yourself.

Access to the updates and progress reports at your disposal, as well as artwork pdf.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $150 or more
About $150

Be drawn as a cursed member of Santa Anna's army, contort in supernatural transformation from flesh and blood to glowing damnation as a hellishly resurrected soldier, please pay 150 dollars per appearance on separate pages you wish to be shown zombified on. Regular updates included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

3 signed prints of your choice, pdf of concept art from genesis to completion and your choice of being drawn as either an Alamo defender or a zombie. All regular progress reports included. Pdf of finished novel when completed.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,000 or more
About $1,000

Named in acknowledgements, receive hard copy of actual graphic novel upon completion, your choice of being drawn as an Alamo defender or a zombie, pdf of all concept art, plus regular progress reports.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $5,000 or more
About $5,000

Pdf of actual scripted story, a hard copy of the finished graphic novel, named in acknowledgements, your choice of being drawn as an Alamo defender or zombie, a pdf of all concept art from start to finish, all progress reports as they unfold.